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Inspirational / Motivational

Everyday thousands of Londoners scurry about in their day to day duties consciously ignoring the ever growing number of homeless and needy people who sleep rough on the entrance of tube stations or on street corners. London is touted as the richest part of Britain but on the flipside it also has the highest rates of poverty and inequality. The number of unemployed Londoners is now above 400,000, the highest number since 1996, and the rate is rising more quickly than the national average.

Stop for a moment and ask yourself when was the last time you gave your time or money selflessly in the hope it will make a difference in the life of someone less fortunate than you. The greatest happiness in life does not come from the trappings of wealth but from the power of giving.

I recently read the story of Aaron Collins who took great joy in unexpected kindness. Once after receiving exceptionally bad service at dinner, from a rude waitress, he left her a $50 tip. Things like this, given or received, were what he thought left a mark on a person’s life.

Aaron unfortunately passed away on July 7, 2012 just 3 weeks after his 30th birthday. But even in his death he wanted to make a difference, his last wish before dying was for his family and friends to have a pizza and leave a $500 tip.

Collins’s brother, Seth, set up a website and PayPal account to pay for the tip but within 24 hours, the Collins family had received more than $10,000. Enough to leave a $500 tip 20 times over.

“The stories, comments, and notes have touched my heart. They have given my mother, father, sisters, and me strength. The way my brother’s last wish has inspired people is incredible.” Seth wrote on the site.

The family went to Puccini’s in Lexington to give the first $500 tip to a random waitress and make Aaron’s wish come true. Watch the video below and I hope it inspires you to do a random act of kindness.

The universe is not a thing that’s going to push us around… We are going to bend the universe and command – and demand – that the universe become what we want it to be.

– Will Smith

Will Smith

There was a re-run of Men in Black on TV today and much to the annoyance of my 5 a side football team, I decided to stay in and watch it for the umpteenth time. Can’t help it, I just love anything Will Smith related. I remember listening to his music in the early 1990′s and watching the first ever episode of the television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and every episode after that. The first movie I ever watched in the cinema was Independence Day. He is not only an amazing entertainer but his view of life is a fresh of breath air and he has always been one of my biggest role models.

He is quite possibly the biggest movie star in the world and according to Newsweek, the most powerful actor in Hollywood. But what drives him and how does he achieve his level of greatness? He doesn’t believe in impossible! When Will started acting, he made the choice to become the biggest movie star in the world. The first thing he did was watch the 10 top-grossing movies of all time and looked for patterns among them. Will has said, “I study the patterns of the universe.”

In the video below, Will Smith explains how to bend the Universe –

Will Smith’s Pearls of Wisdom about Life

Over the years in countless interviews, Will has shared with us a lot of inspiring and motivational quotes. Thought I had share some of my favourite ones below –

I LOVE LIVING. I think that’s infectious.

Greatness truly exists in all of us.

Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.

I’ve never really viewed myself as particularly talented, where I excel is ridiculous,sickening work ethic. While the other guy is sleeping, I’m working. While the other guy is eating, I’m working.

If you don’t dedicate yourself to becoming better every single day, you will never be able to communicate with people the way that you want.

The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is that I’m not afraid to DIE on a treadmill. You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, but if we get on a treadmill together, there are two things:
1- You’re getting off first
OR
2- I’m gonna DIE
It’s really that simple

You don’t try to build a wall. You don’t set out and say ‘I’m gonna build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that has ever been built’. You say ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid’. You do this every single day, and soon you have a wall.

If you are not making someone else’s life better, then you are wasting your time. Your life will become better by making other people’s lives better.

The first step before anyone else in the world believes it is that YOU have to believe it.

Rudyard Kipling’s (1865-1936) inspirational poem ‘If’ first appeared in his collection ‘Rewards and Fairies’ in 1909. The poem ‘If’ is inspirational, motivational, and a set of rules for ‘grown-up’ living. Kipling’s ‘If’ contains mottos and maxims for life, and the poem is also a blueprint for personal integrity, behaviour and self-development. ‘If’ is perhaps even more relevant today than when Kipling wrote it, as an ethos and a personal philosophy. Lines from Kipling’s ‘If’ appear over the player’s entrance to Wimbledon’s Centre Court – a poignant reflection of the poem’s timeless and inspiring quality. (Source : http://www.businessballs.com/ifpoemrudyardkipling.htm)

‘if’ by rudyard kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master,
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!